A Little Crochet

I needed a quick and easy project after hitting a major roadblock in my knitting, so I dug out a skein of luscious baby alpaca and silk (Lorna's Laces Honor) and whipped out the Iced Ascot by Rebecca Velasquez from the book Simply Crochet by Robyn Chachula. I liked Rebecca's pattern enough to do a pattern search of her other designs on Ravelry, and ended up purchasing her Teesdale small shawl/scarf pattern which I'm working on now.

The colorway is Loopy Ewe Shuffle, which leads me to believe it was a one off from The Loopy Ewe, no longer available I'm sure, as it's been in the stash for quite a while.

It was a nice palate cleanser after the heartbreak of running out of yarn for a sweater from a kit, purchased a while back, from a merchant that is no longer in business, and a yarn made specifically for that designer...well, you get the idea. I've been working on it for at least a year, and I was gutted to be unable to finish it off. Sigh.

There has been knitting though -- of the machine variety -- several hats for donation which were knitted on the LK-150. No photos, as they're pretty Plain Jane, but I did have a "D'oh" moment when mattress stitching them up.

I was having trouble seeing where to place my sewing needle to continue a straight seam after pulling the working yarn taut to snug up the stitches.  So I had the bright idea (or so I thought) to put a little marker in the place where I needed to place the needle after snugging up -- like so:  

Worked a charm, but the clever among you will grasp the "D'oh" reaction -- I could have simply placed my needle there before pulling the working yarn taut and been ready for my next stitch in the proper position. Oh well, I felt smart for a moment, anyway!